What If the Shareholders Won't Take the Money Back?

Michael Dell’s effort to lead a $24.4 billion buyout of the company he founded suffered a serious setback on Thursday after a special committee of Dell ’s board adjourned the shareholder vote on the deal to avoid losing at the ballot box.

The delay will give Michael Dell and his partner in the deal, private equity firm Silver Lake, until July 24 to secure additional shareholder support for their buyout, either by twisting some arms and beating the bushes for more votes, or increasing their $13.65-a-share bid for the PC maker. Michael Dell was reportedly about 150 million votes short of gaining approval for his transaction.

There's never been a buyout this big before, and as I've said on a couple of occasions, it would be a helluva thing to see get pulled off.

But this is a pretty big bump, and I'm not sure there's any getting over it. At some point Silver Lake is going to scream bloody murder, and Microsoft has already agreed to front more money than might be wise.